SHAPE EVENT

Here is the children's write up from the day.

Our visit to the SHAPE event

By Emily, Peyton, Lillian, Lilith, Kayne, Mirko and Bailey.

The SHAPE Programme organises events and opportunities throughout the year for children and young people to engage in positive activities.

SHAPE’s objective is to listen to the voice of children and young people in Sandwell using five themes:

• Staying Safe

• Being Healthy

• Enjoying and Achieving

• Making a Positive Contribution

• Economic Wellbeing

Our Well-being ambassadors were very lucky to be invited to this amazing event! 

When we arrived we went in to the main hall and had a drink and some biscuits.  We were introduced to the day by the event organiser. 

Economic Wellbeing

We were spilt into groups, Tipton Green were partnered with Temple Meadow.  Our first task was with NatWest bank, where we had to design a new playground.  Everyone had to choose what role they wanted to be – we had to choose from: project manager, budget keeper, creative leader and marketing manager.  We were only allowed to spend £600 – this helped us understand about budgeting and which pieces of equipment were most important to have on the playground.  Each school took it in turns to share their playground designs and reasons why they chose what they did.  We were then asked what we would remove from the playground if we had half the money.  This helped us learn about money and how it is important that we save money.

Staying Safe

Next, we went onto the Boxclever workshop.  This workshop was all about self-defence and the main areas we were working on were: focus, resilience, discipline and respect.  These are all really important.  The workshop also helped with our metal health. Firstly, we were taught about the boxing stance and how to do a jab.  We also learned a variety of different moves and worked with our partners to practice.  This workshop helped with our mental health and self-defence.   We really enjoyed the workshop.

Being Healthy

Straight after the Boxclever workshop we went into a healthy lunches workshop with the Sandwell Choices team.  Firstly, we wrote down what we have in our lunch boxes and we had discussion about healthy food choices.  We then made some changes to our lunch boxes to ensure they were healthy.  After that, we looked at the healthy food plate and played a game where we had to find foods around the room and place them into the correct area on the food plate.  We finished this session with a healthy food quiz, where we learnt some really interesting facts.  We really liked this workshop as it helped us make better food choices.

Next, we all went into the main hall to have our lunch.  The food provided was amazing!  We really enjoyed our lunch and we were able to try some new foods.

Enjoying and Achieving

Our final workshop was with Creatv Hub where we were introduced to graphic design.  Firstly, we looked at  Frosties box, we shared how the design on the box made us feel.  Kellogs were very clever as they put a cartoon character on the box which draws the attention of children.  The writing was very bold and easily spotted on the shelves.  After that, we played a game where we guessed the logos of a variety of companies – we were only shown a small section of the logo.  This helped us to understand the importance of graphic design and how creators have to think carefully about their designs to ensure they are remembered by many people.  We then looked at shapes and colours and had to share how they made us feel, this led onto our final task where we chose our favourite shape and colours and created a design based on our likes and interests.  This was OUR logo!

Making a Positive Contribution

Finally, we took part in a survey where one of the event leaders asked us questions or gave us scenarios about school/school life and how we would make changes. We had cards with letters A-D on them and we had to use them when we were asked to vote.  This made us feel really involved in the session, like we had a voice.

We all had a great day, we learnt lots and are looking to sharing it with our classes.

For more information about the SHAPE programme click here